"You know her...?" Vedran said, looking at Jay again.
While he wasn't normally the type to go by looks, he couldn't deny that this girl commanded attention in one way or another.
Whether it was her physical appearance, the pressure she was emitting, or the confidence with which she moved despite having so many eyes on her, they were all aspects that left others feeling a little inferior in an unconscious way.
"Yeah, she's a recurring classmate, I think she's in almost every class I'm in." Jay replied, still with a smile on his face,
While Jay had no problem shouting to the four winds that he had come to keep Vedran company, this was really only a small part of the truth.
After all, the main reason he had come here was right in front of his eyes, in the form of a girl with golden hair and a bored expression on her face.
As for how Jay found out that Faith was working here, it really wasn't that difficult, as he was able to get this information relatively quickly and safely by asking around in the classroom.
Although none of his classmates really knew where exactly she worked, by making discards of the places they did work such as cafes, restaurants, among other things, Jay was able to deduce the one remaining place where it would be possible for Faith to be working.
The farm fields.
However, even with this information, Jay couldn't just walk in and try to approach her just like that, in fact he already knew how that would end, so he had to come up with a plan.
Fortunately for him, at the same time he finished figuring out what Faith's job site was, the incident with Vedran and Nico also happened, so with a bit of ingenuity, he was able to take advantage of it to get Vedran into this job.
'I surely had some luck, but I'll take credit for it all working out so well anyway.' Jay thought, letting out a sigh of satisfaction because a couple of his plans were progressing correctly, 'Well, I'd better get started on the next thing...'
The next moment, Jay approached Jay and said quietly, "Hey, humor me and work harder than before, at least for about 5 minutes."
"...What do you mean...?" Vedran replied, not understanding what Jay was referring to.
"You'll see."
With those words as his last, Jay then walked away from Vedran before beginning to plow hard and at a much faster pace than before.
Seeing this, Vedran also increased his pace, not entirely sure if that was what Jay wanted to do.
The 5 minutes passed quickly, and despite Faith's interruption, the attention of the other students returned to the pair, who with their fast and efficient work were leaving them behind.
Feeling that he had managed to gather a sufficient amount of attention, Jay then proceeded to suddenly approach Vedran before jabbing his work tool of an unknown material into the ground directly in front of Vedran.
"You bastard, right from the start you're trying to compete with me aren't you!" Shouted Jay with an annoyed expression on his face.
Thanks to the fact that the shout was relatively loud, the surrounding students couldn't help but focus their attention on him, which only caused Jay to become even more confident.
"From the moment I arrived, you've been trying to overshadow my splendid work, or are you going to deny it?!" Jay continued, moving even closer to Vedran to position himself in front of him, challenging him with his gaze.
By this point, at least temporarily, Faith's appearance had been overshadowed by this seemingly obvious confrontation.
Vedran really didn't know what to do, but remembering Jay telling him to play along, he didn't back down and replied, "Any problems?"
Although his tone of voice didn't sound half as loud or emotional as Jay's, it wasn't soft by any means either, causing the other students' expectations to rise.
At that moment, a female student approached towards the two, raising both arms as she said, "Come on, come on, there's no need to start a fight over this."
This girl had her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and was in good physical condition, also belonging to the group of students who excelled at doing good work.
Apparently, she didn't want this argument to go any further either.
With someone interfering to mediate between the two, the other students then began to lose interest, though before that happened, Jay spoke up again.
"Of course not, I don't like violence either! However, I can't just stand by while being challenged so openly, so instead of beating around the bush, let's settle this at once, I challenge you to a competition!"
As he said that, Jay raised his hand to point directly at Vedran, who had an expression of not quite knowing what was going on.
"I..."
Vedran was about to respond, but Jay wasn't finished, "What's more, to see that it's not a competition in name only, I'll even put up 1,000 merit points out of my own pocket! And while I'm sure only you will be a tough opponent, if anyone else wants to join in they are welcome!"
This statement surprised everyone present, whether it was the 1,000 merit point award or the fact that Jay was belittling them, it was clear that he had reached out to everyone.
Which, of course, was exactly what Jay wanted.
He had laid it all out on the table, targeting exactly what the other people most appreciated to the best of his knowledge.
"...Did he just say 1,000 merit points...?" Asked a nearby student whose attention was attracted by the decent amount of points.
For some, money was more important.
"No one else will be a tough opponent, eh...?" Said the same girl who tried to mediate between the two a moment ago, interested more in the second part of what Jay said rather than the merit points, "Fine, then I'll join in too!"
For others, their pride was more important, even on a scale as small as this.
"I want to participate too!"
"Me too!"
Just like that, with the brown-haired girl being the first, as if they were a row of dominoes, several students began to fall for Jay's provocation, making the competition bigger and bigger, until finally, about a third of the students present in the fields ended up joining in the competition.
With this result, Jay couldn't have been happier, though of course, his accomplice in organizing this competition, Vedran, was anxious due to the fact that this was the complete opposite of what he was used to doing, i.e. laying low.
"Hm?"
Noticing Vedran's nervousness, Jay then walked over to him and whispered while giving him a thumbs up, "Relax, everything has been coldly calculated."
"..."
Without much else to do, Vedran could only put his trust in Jay for the time being, that's for sure, not ruling out the idea of sneaking through the crowd to escape if things got too rowdy.
Now with several participants, Jay wasted no time and began to explain to everyone what the competition was about and what the rules were.
Each student working here was given a list of fields to plow, these fields usually measuring about 20 square meters.
For the competition, each student had to plow 10 fields perfectly in the shortest possible time, a task that was a bit of a chore even for those students who excelled.
In fact, this even made some students hesitate to participate.
However, thanks to the reward of merit points plus the fact that Jay still maintained his attitude of being able to finish everything easily, either because of the prize or their pride, no student dropped out.
As for the students who owned the fields that would be used in the competition, they had no problem, after all, what mattered was that those fields were worked, not who did it.
Quickly, all the participants then lined up in a large line, with their tools in hand and their target fields in front of them, the atmosphere quickly began to liven up.
Seeing that everyone was ready, Jay then proceeded to say the opening words, not before taking the opportunity to liven up the atmosphere a bit more, of course.
"Now that you're all done getting ready for me to humiliate you, we'd better get started, on your marks..."
Without having much time to sulk, the other students instead decided to grit their teeth and get ready as much as they could.
"Ready...Out!"
*Bam!*
Immediately, the synchronized sound of tools being driven into the ground spread into the surroundings, though the synchronization was broken just a moment later.
Although they had all started off evenly, the further they progressed with their respective fields, the difference between the average students and those who stood out became apparent.
"I'll take care of shutting your mouth!" Said the brown haired girl, who belonged to the latter group of students, apparently Jay's provocations had indeed had an effect on her.
Her words were directed at none other than Jay, who was right next to her and was also going at the same speed as her, and of course, it didn't take him long to respond, "Hah! We're just getting started!"
As he finished saying that, even though both Jay and the brown haired girl, plus a handful of other students were leading the race, the former then suddenly sped up, a current of wind beginning to envelop every move he made.
"Hey, that's cheating!" Another student quickly shouted.
Just as he had said, Jay himself had set a restriction on skills in this competition, however...
"I didn't ban skills, I just said not to use them directly for plowing! Learn to listen better, slimeball!" Jay replied as he continued his march, quickly taking the lead.
"You...!"
Upon hearing Jay's words, a vein then appeared on the forehead of the student who made the claim.
A small sense of indignation appeared inside all the students present, mostly because of how blatant and rude Jay was.
However, some students, instead of getting angry, decided to focus their attention on what the aforementioned had said, that they could use their abilities but not in a direct way.
*Swoosh!*
Several sources of pressure then appeared in the cultivation fields, coming from none other than the pugilist students concentrating their qi in their bodies, either by the use of martial techniques or just a raw use of qi.
Thanks to the fact that most of the students present at the competition were pugilists, the stream of qi was so great that it even completely overshadowed the abilities of esper such as Jay, though of course, this did not mean that they would leave him behind immediately.
Instead, even though they were using their qi, Jay was actually moving further away from them!
This had an explanation, and that was that despite Jay's relaxed and confident appearance, inside he was completely the opposite!
'Hm, I wonder what it will be like to have the system take control of my body. Maybe I'll find out today... ' He thought, looking with a listless smile at his energy control window, whose parameters were crazier than ever.
The next moment, however, Jay let out a sigh and continued to give his all in the competition, as he remembered that winning the competition was a crucial step for the next step of his plan.
"WOOOHHH!!!!"
At that moment, an excited shout came from the brown-haired girl, who had taken the declaration of being able to use skills to another level and had her body completely surrounded by pugilistic flames.
The flames in question were of a beautiful orange color, and despite what they might suggest with their ferocity and the heat they emanated, in reality it was not to increase the pugilist girl's attack, but to enhance her physical endurance to the limit.
That way, although Jay had kept the lead thanks to the energy of his little ones and the use of his wind control to make him faster, the pugilist girl closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
'...Ok, this is bad! Come on, just one field to go and that's it, I have to get there first!' Thought Jay as his breath hitched and he began to use the phantom step when he could.
"HAHAHA, I'M COMING FOR YOU!!!" Shouted the pugilist girl again, increasing Jay's nerves.
Slowly, the distance they both had to cover was slowly getting shorter and shorter, both of them being incredibly even.
The distance going from being 20 meters to 10.
From 10 to 5.
From 5 to 1.
Until finally, the finish line was under their feet.
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